Fever Coach Stephanie White Shares How Caitlin Clark Can Level Up Before WNBA Season

Indiana Fever head coach Stephanie White sees several ways Caitlin Clark can get better in 2025.
Stephanie White, new Indiana Fever head coach, speaks Monday, Nov. 4, 2024, during a press conference held on Salesforce Court at Gainbridge Fieldhouse in Indianapolis.
Stephanie White, new Indiana Fever head coach, speaks Monday, Nov. 4, 2024, during a press conference held on Salesforce Court at Gainbridge Fieldhouse in Indianapolis. | Mykal McEldowney/IndyStar / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images

Indiana Fever fans have been eager to see star guard Caitlin Clark's development leading into the 2025 WNBA season, especially after Indiana's front office hired the esteemed Stephanie White to be their franchise's next head coach.

White is renowned for her adept basketball mind, which she's surely using to make Clark an even better player than she already is. And during her appearance on an April 16 episode of Good Follow with Ros Gold-Onwude, White detailed how she wants to see Clark improve this season.

"Certainly getting stronger is one," White said of how Clark can improve. "That's the way that teams have to try to keep her off balance. Keeping a low center of gravity. There are times where she plays a little bit upright. Making sure core strength and her ability to move with time under tension, and stay in a low center of gravity, are important.

"From just a straight basketball perspective, making sure that we help her diversify her finishing ability," White added. "Diversify in the way that it's not predictable. To be able to be equal in terms of production and facilitation, going right and left. To be able to have different types of finishing looks... we can't quite be as fundamentally predictable."

She then said, "I think the challenge for us coaches is how do we get her a rest when she's on the floor, while she's playing? While she's on the floor. And some of that's going to be playing off-ball, utilize her a a screener, getting her into action on the third and fourth side instead of the first and second, where it's easy to game plan against."

"We know how great she is with the ball in her hands. We're not going to take that away, but we've got to be able to diversify a bit in how we use her," White said of her star guard.

While that sounds like a lot of things for Clark to work on, the fact that White can identify this many ways for her to improve is a testament to her coaching excellence.

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Grant Young
GRANT YOUNG

Grant Young covers Women’s Basketball, the Indiana Fever and the New York Mets for Sports Illustrated’s ‘On SI’ sites. He holds an MFA degree in creative writing from the University of San Francisco (USF), where he also graduated with a Bachelor’s Degree in Marketing and played on USF’s Division I baseball team for five years. However, he now prefers Angel Reese to Angels in the Outfield.

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